Attention emerging business leaders: unlock your potential and enhance your career development by applying to a leadership program. Whatever your career goals are, having well developed leadership skills is crucial to achieving success in today’s fast-paced business environment. Leadership courses prepare students to lead teams, projects, and broad business tasks. There is a lot more to leadership than management – leaders have a vision and the ability to move people towards that vision. Gain the innovative business education necessary to prepare for success as a leader.

Leadership Degree Levels

Leadership degrees are typically offered at the bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral, and graduate certificate level both on traditional campuses and online. Some programs combine face-to-face instruction with online coursework. Four-year bachelor degrees require candidates to have completed their high school diploma or GED. Some programs also ask applicants to submit SAT scores.

Graduate programs will require a bachelor’s degree and may ask candidates to submit GRE scores. Master’s programs are available as a Master of Science (MS), Master of Arts (MA), and Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree and generally take two years to complete. Leadership doctoral degrees are offered as both a Doctorate of Business administration (DBA), as well as a Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) degree. Doctoral programs can last from three to five years and typically end with a research dissertation, while graduate certificate programs can take up to a year to complete.

Prerequisites for entrance to leadership schools vary widely. Some schools require you to be a student of their business degree program, while others require you to have several years of experience as a manager or be nominated by your employer to participate. There are degree programs in leadership designed for students who start their career in a business-related field without ever having earned a degree in leadership. In these cases, earning a degree lends credibility to their experience in addition to equipping them with the skills and knowledge needed to take their organizations to a higher level. Pursuing graduate study in leadership may be viewed as an alternative to enrolling in an executive MBA program.

What You Learn in Leadership Courses

Students at leadership schools learn how to develop a leadership culture within their organization, create high-performance teams, and drive results. Many programs require students to pursue experiential learning opportunities, so they can bring theory into practice through team projects, workshops, business simulation, and internships. In a leadership class, students develop self-awareness, build a business skill set, and learn to increase their influence and impact. The curriculum may cover the following topics:

Organizational structure

Group and intergroup dynamics

Global perspective

Human resource management

Social environment of business

Managing organizational change

Jobs for Leadership Grads

There are many job opportunities for effective leaders. Business leaders come from a wide variety of professional backgrounds and work in a broad range of industries and locations. Executives devise strategies and policies to enable organizations to meet their goals. The work and guidance of managers is essential to the success of any company.

Employment growth for business leaders in the coming years will vary widely by industry. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the employment of top executives is expected to grow 5% from 2010 to 2020. Top executives are among the highest paid workers in the United States. In 2012, general and operations managers earned a median annual salary of $95,440, while chief executives earned $165,080.

The competition for leadership positions is strong, because of the prestige and high pay associated with these jobs. Those with extensive managerial experience, an advanced degree in leadership, and a proven track record of achieving positive results for organizations typically have the best job prospects. Enhance your employment opportunities and obtain the leadership skills needed to succeed by exploring leadership programs today.